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5 Biggest Money Wasting Habits to Avoid

You may consider yourself financially wise. You may have your savings and emergency funds in order, and for the most part, might consider yourself quite frugal.

That being said, many of us have habits and discretionary purchases that could be wasting money more than we might realize. Take a look at these five money wasting habits and see which ones you might need to break.

1. Take-Out

I’ll be the first to admit that after a long day at work, the thought of cooking doesn’t exactly sound appealing. Unfortunately, choosing to always dine out can get expensive fast.

In fact, by opting to cook at home you’ll save hundreds of dollars per year. Keep take-out and restaurant visits as luxuries and cook at home the majority of the time. If cooking everyday really sounds awful, learning to meal-plan can be a great option.

2. ATM Costs

That $3 to use another bank’s ATM might not seem steep initially, but if you’re using an out-of-network ATM a couple times a week, you’re wasting a lot of money. If you find yourself constantly using an ATM that doesn’t align with your bank, you might want to consider switching to a more location-convenient bank, or looking for one that reimburses for ATM fees.

3. Your Morning Coffee Stop

Again, a couple of dollars every morning doesn’t sound like much, and it can seem like a fun part to your morning routine to stop at the local coffee shop. Nonetheless, you’d be surprised by how much money you could save each year by opting to brew coffee in your own home instead.

Plus, thanks to modern day coffee pots, you can easily get everything ready the night before and set it to start brewing at a certain time each morning, so you won’t have to worry about it when you’re too groggy to think.

4. Brand Name Purchasing

Thanks to advertisements, our brains tend to be drawn towards purchasing all things brand name. However, if you’ve ever taken the time to compare prices, you might notice how much more name-brands are compared to generic, often times as much as 20 percent.

While there might be a few name-brand products you can’t give up, do your best to buy most products generically. Most likely, you won’t notice the difference.

5. Always Buying New

It seems like companies are always coming out with the newest and greatest things. Think the release of a new iPhone every other year. While buying everything that’s brand new is enticing, it’s not usually the most financially wise. Most of the time, the price difference between models, whether that’s electronics or otherwise, is exorbitant. But, the difference between the actual features or quality of the products is minimal. Carefully research and make an informed decision as to whether or not you really need the brand-new product before purchasing.

We usually don’t realize all the ways we’re wasting money. In fact, it’s some of our money wasting habits have become so second-nature that we can be completely unaware of them. Take the time to examine the little ways you spend extra money. You might be shocked by how much you can save by altering some of your habits.